Most of you who have made
your own cider and other juices know that
straining the raw product to obtain a pure
juice can be time consuming and laborious. I
have through trial and error developed the
system below which keeps excessive amounts of
sediment out of the canned juice product, and
it is also much more efficient than any other
system I have seen.

The Filter
Bucket

It
is often possible to find tall buckets from restaurants
(used for bulk foods) that have the same diameter as a
standard 5 gallon bucket, but hold 7 or 8 gallons. You
will need one of those, and they are most likely found at
the same place you find sturdy 5 gallon buckets, a local
donut shop or bakery.

Filter Bucket
at left

Drill a 3/4 hole in a side
of the tall bucket where the handle falls,
just barely above the bottom. Swing the
handle to the back side of the bucket to get
it out of the way. Then fit a 3/4", short
plastic nipple in the hole, enlarging the
hole with a round wood rasp as needed to get
a tight fit. Fit a 3/4" plastic gate valve to
the nipple on the outside of the bucket, and
on the inside use a 1 1/4" to 3/4" female
reducer as a nut on the inside. A thin "O"
ring of the correct diameter can be placed
between the nut and the plastic bucket on the
inside, and the nut compresses the "O" ring
correctly, thus forming a water tight seal.
These are all common parts found in most any
hardware store.

Now you
have a bucket from which you can pour a
filtered liquid through the gate valve, and
not have to lift the bucket and slosh it
around while pouring.

The filter
to use is a standard 5 gallon nylon paint
filter, fine grade. The filter is large
enough to drop inside the bucket, and the top
pulled out and over the rim and down past the
top two reinforcing ridges on the bucket.
These filters are quite durable and will last
for years if treated with care. They are made
from pure nylon, have no additives, and are
completely safe for this particular use. All
of these items are available from any True
Value hardware store worth its
salt.

But now
comes the problem. The filter will not stay
in place when liquid is poured inside -- the
weight of the liquid pulls the filter to the
bottom of the bucket, and that is not
desirable. That means you have to securely
tie the filter to the bucket. The easiest way
to do that is to use cotton clothesline rope,
as it is very smooth and soft and will not
abrade the nylon filter.

You start
with 5 feet of rope, and tie about a 2 inch
loop in one end. Then approximately 26 inches
from the loop you make another 2 inch loop in
the rope, which will leave a "tail" on the
rope of about 28 inches.

---------(28")--------------0---------------(26")------------0

To use this
rope, wrap it around the bucket (over the
filter) in between reinforcing rings near the
top of the bucket, put the "tail" through end
loop and pull the rope tight, then put the
tail through the middle loop, and tighten
again. You will find you can tighten the rope
nicely, and "squeeze" the bucket between the
two loops, so the filter is held tightly
while not being harmed in any way. Between
the loops, push up a section of the tail of
the rope, put a loop through that, pull
tightly, and you have a secure knot that can
be loosened simply by pulling on the end of
the "tail."

Now the
bucket, complete with filter and spigot, can
be placed on a table with the gate valve
protruding over the edge, and freshly made
juice poured in the top. Replace the lid to
the bucket, and grind, juice, or squeeze more
juice, and add it the to the bucket. The
filter removes the large particles, and can
handle about 20 gallons of raw juice before
it needs to be removed and cleaned. For mass
production, two filters can be employed, one
being washed and dried while the other is in
use.

When 3 to 4
gallons of filtered juice are visible in the
bottom of the bucket, put a pot or pan under
the gate valve and twist the handle, and the
filtered liquid flows nicely with full
control over the volume of flow
desired.

The Sediment
Bucket

That
filtered liquid needs to sit and so very fine
particulates will precipitate to the bottom,
leaving wonderfully clear, pure juice above
the sediment. For this purpose I installed a
small spigot about a quarter of the way up a
5 gallon bucket.

Sediment bucket on right

The sediment bucket should
be placed where it need not be moved nor
jostled, so very fine particles will sediment
via gravity to the bottom of the bucket --
below the spigot! Drain the filtered juice
from the strainer bucket into a large pitcher
and pour it into the sediment bucket, then
wait a half hour or so. Now absolutely clear,
pure juice can be drained out of the bucket
above the sediment layer, and it is ready for
canning.

When the
sediment reaches the level of the spigot, it
can be poured on the compost heap, the bucket
hosed out, and the process resumed. Actually,
it is much harder to describe this system
than to build or use it!

With a
total cost of about $10.00, and a useful life
measured in decades if stored away from
sunlight, this system is certainly cost
effective. And the end result is perfectly
pure, filtered canned juice, which may be
stored safely on a shelf, its health and
beauty captured in quart or half gallon
sparkling jars to enjoy for years.

Some "juices" should be
canned without the use of the filter or
sediment buckets, of course, such as
applesauce and some squashes. This
produce is chopped into chunks, boiled until
soft, then run through a "Squeezo"
strainer. Even though they are thick
liquids, they can be put into the bottling
tank (below), heated over a kerosene stove,
and poured directly into hot canning jars for
home canning.

The Bottling
Tank

Most people
will stop with just these two modified
buckets, and use a stainless steel stock pot
to heat the pure juice before canning. The
juice must then be dipped out of the stock
pot (gravy ladle) and poured into dry heated
canning jars, a lid and ring added, and the
jar given a boiling water bath canning for 20
minutes.

Stainless steel bottling tank
showing valve. Click to enlarge.

For those who really want
a "Look Ma, no hands!!! type of canning
system, very fast and efficient and that does
not involve ladle dipping of hot liquid, a
heating tank with a bottom drain can be built
that works like a charm.

I used a
stainless steel tank, 8 inches wide and 36
inches tall, that began life as a water
"blanket" filter and was discarded. I had a
sheet metal shop drill through the side near
the bottom and weld on a 3/4" stainless steel
nipple. To that I added a brass gate valve
and a 90 degree angle, so liquids can be
heated right in the stainless steel tank
sitting on a cooking stand over a kerosene
stove, and the gate valve opened to fill
canning jars directly from the valve: the
liquid need not be ladled and splashed at
all.

With this
system, the juice can be made, run through
the filter bucket, then the settling tank, be
heated in the stainless steel tank over a
kerosene stove, the jars filled and then put
in a water bath canner sitting on another
kerosene cooker, and the whole process is so
efficient it is almost like an assembly
line! Alternatively, you can use a
steam canner instead of the waterbath canner
to save time and energy. Click
for
Steam Canner Review by
New England Gardener.

I use
the Squeezo Strainer to make raw juice
from vegetables and fruit. Using
a larger screen, the Squeezo strainer
can also make applesauce and wonderful
pumpkin sauce. As with all large
vegetables and fruits, the pumpkin must
first be cut into 2" squares, then
boiled for 20 minutes. Once cooled, it
is soft enough to run through the
strainer. The pure sauce slides down
the chute while the skin is expelled
out the end into a separate
container.

MORE ON CANNING JUICES
FROM New England Gardener

The
Mehu-Liisa steam juicer is an ideal way to
extract and process relatively small amounts
of fruit juices. Mine holds 10 liters of
fruit, or about 11 quarts. The hot juice can
be drained directly into sterilized bottles
or jars and sealed. Then it only needs to be
stored in a cool dark place, like any other
canned food. Today I used mine to make
raspberry juice. With this fruit, I got about
2/3 as much juice as the whole fruit I put in
the juicer, more than 6 quarts. This juice is
very flavorful, and I dilute it with an equal
amount of water before drinking, and it still
tastes much more like the fruit it came from
than any store bought juice I ever
had.

Lehman's
Hardware offers this juicer as well as rubber
stoppers for old fashion soda or beer bottles
with unthreaded tops. Ordinary canning jars
work fine too. The juice is also perfect for
making pan cake syrups by adding an equal
volume of sugar, or in any jelly recipe. This
unit can also be used for steam cooking,
blanching, reheating or defrosting. -
New England Gardener

For those
of you that can juice in canning jars the above cap can be
used on wine and whiskey bottles which I am sure you can
pick up from restaurants and recyclers. The way they seal
is you pour your hot juice in the bottle, slide the cap
over the opening and down the neck of the bottle and as
the juice cools it creates a suction drawing the cap down
into the inside neck of the bottle and sealing it. And
they are reusable. I have personally used these caps on
whiskey bottles to can elderberry juice so I know it
works. from Jim Taylor